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When is this cycle going to end? It seems like every time a high profile acquisition takes place there’s a vocal group of people blogging about how the company

When is this cycle going to end? It seems like every time a high profile acquisition takes place there’s a vocal group of people blogging about how the company in question isn’t really “world-disrupting shit Silicon Valley does”. Have you seen Silicon Valley recently? This is exactly what it does. There’s still a group of companies out there who are taking big chances and trying amazing things, but by and large the ecosystem is full of stuff like Mailbox. Well-made, highly polished software that caters to a specific problem that people with money complain about. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that business model, but don’t kid yourself into thinking that this is some huge affront to the innovation engine that is Silicon Valley.

niggler 14y ago
It won't end, because even those who claim to dislike the practice still wish to be part of it. "the innovation engine that is Silicon Valley" Maybe I'm too young, but was there ever a time where Silicon Valley was innovating in the way we wish SV was innovating? It seems like the landscape was like this for a very long time
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- rdl 14y ago
  Steve Blank talks about a lot of interesting RF/defense stuff from ancient times, and of course Intel early on, so the 1970s were great. And Apple. And videogame boom/bust/boom. I'd consider The Internet, cisco, Sun, Berkeley UNIX, etc. to have been quite innovative. (early 1980s to early 1990s recession) Arguably the first part of the tech bubble was amazing -- 1995-1998 or so. I think 2008-2011 was a low period, but that may just correlate with the economic downturn. 2005-2008 was interesting due to AJAX and not much else; that really was the weakest boomlet technically, but I think a lot of it was just proving we could have a boom again, just like GW1 was proving US military involvement didn't automatically mean another Vietnam. I've seen plenty of awesome stuff in 2012+, and it seems to be accelerating.

niggler 14y ago

It won't end, because even those who claim to dislike the practice still wish to be part of it. "the innovation engine that is Silicon Valley" Maybe I'm too young, but was there ever a time where Silicon Valley was innovating in the way we wish SV was innovating? It seems like the landscape was like this for a very long time

deleted 14y ago
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rdl 14y ago
Steve Blank talks about a lot of interesting RF/defense stuff from ancient times, and of course Intel early on, so the 1970s were great. And Apple. And videogame boom/bust/boom. I'd consider The Internet, cisco, Sun, Berkeley UNIX, etc. to have been quite innovative. (early 1980s to early 1990s recession) Arguably the first part of the tech bubble was amazing -- 1995-1998 or so. I think 2008-2011 was a low period, but that may just correlate with the economic downturn. 2005-2008 was interesting due to AJAX and not much else; that really was the weakest boomlet technically, but I think a lot of it was just proving we could have a boom again, just like GW1 was proving US military involvement didn't automatically mean another Vietnam. I've seen plenty of awesome stuff in 2012+, and it seems to be accelerating.